John Johnston Webster was born in Virginia in 1796.  His father, John, and his grandfather, Moses, were both soldiers of the Revolution.  About 1817, John Johnston and his father moved to Alabama.  In 1821, John Johnston married Mariam Richardson Brown of Alabama.

John Johnston Webster’s slaves had been trained as brick layers, carpenters and builders; and, as was the custom of those days, were hired out to people desiring that type of labor.  Mr. Webster became a prominent building contractor who built most of the early brick structures of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Some of them are still standing.  His own home had been the very first brick building of the city.

John Johnston lost very heavily in a partnership business and had to pay all the losses.  In disgust, he decided to move to Texas with his wife, two daughters, and a son.  He arrived in Texas about 1839.  He bought between six and seven thousand acres of land in Harrison County.  In 1844, he built his house and named it Mimosa Hall.  All the bricks were made on the plantation and the lumber was cut from the forest by slaves.

In Texas, John Johnston Webster was primarily a planter.  There were only two houses, besides his own, that were designed and built by his slaves.  One was given to his daughter, Mary Ann, with a plantation and slaves when she married.  That house was torn down and the bricks were sold.  The other house, a large brick one, which is still standing, was built for a Mr. Andrews.  The home, located in Karnack, Texas, was purchased from Mr. Andrews by Mr. T. J. Taylor.  Mr. Taylor is the father of Lady Bird Johnson, wife of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36^th President of the United States of America.

The history of the early settlers of this part of east Texas is very interesting.  In this particular neighborhood, most of the families came from Virginia and brought their culture and pride of family with them onto the wilderness and, in time, lived very much as they had in the old states.  Most of the old plantation homes either burned, were torn down, or allowed to fall into decay and the land sold to outsiders.  Mimosa Hall remained in the family for many years.  It was willed to John Brown Webster, John Johnston’s son.  John Brown Webster willed it to his son, Louis B. Webster, and then it was sold to another family relative.  The house is still in excellent condition.  The remains of a brickyard can be found on the western part of the Mimosa Hall Plantation.

John Johnston Webster died on January 19, 1854 at the age of 57 at Mimosa Hall Plantation.  His wife, Mariam Richardson Brown, died May 24, 1844 at the age of 45, at Mimosa Hall Plantation.

The Mimosa Hall-Webster Cemetery is located about three miles back in the woods from Mimosa Hall Plantation.  The cemetery is still being used and is maintained by the descendants of John Johnston Webster.

John Johnston Webster had three children, John Brown, Eliza Jane and Mary Ann.

John Brown Webster, my great, great grandfather, married Julia Marie Meade Steele.  They had nine children, William Edwin, Lucy, Katherine Amelia, Mariam, Mary Ann, Louis Beauregard, Eliza Jane, John Johnston and Julia Brown.

Mariam Webster, my great grandmother, married Dr. Benjamin Harrison Baldwin.  They had two children, William Steel and Julia Amelia.

William Steel Baldwin, my grandfather, married Annie Conway Rowe.  They had five children, Fred, Clyde (female), Steel, Vera, and Benjamin.

Clyde, my mother, married Eddie Lockwood Shepherd.  They had six children, Ray, Jeanette (died in infancy), William Thomas, Donald (died in infancy), Ralph and Anne.

John Johnston Webster was my great, great, great grandfather.

Anne Shepherd Moore, Descendant